Carry my Exuberance Away
by RainbowDitoo
Summary: Ever since the reveal that Fletcher Bowman is Clay's brother, Robin's been having some jealousy issues. On a mission to investigate the old Wizard's Council Castle, he decides he'd rather be alone than have to look at Fletch any longer. Title is taken from Hungover in the City of Dust by Autoheart. It's a good song.
1. Chapter 1

Robin wasn't sure what he was doing. He shouldn't have split off from the rest of the group, but he wanted to be alone. Right now, he didn't really care what happened to him. He squeezed the grip of his sword once, and ran a hand along a wall as he walked through the winding corridors of the abandoned Wizard's Council castle. His fingers made trails in the dust.

Slowly, he made his way into a large banquet hall. Long tables were set up in the center, old silverware and plates covered in cobwebs absolutely littered them. Long tapestries of days long gone hung from a banister on the opposite wall of the room. They were moth eaten and falling apart, but Robin could tell that they were once beautiful works of art. He chewed at the inside of his cheek. He should tell the others what he found. This would be a good place to investigate…

He lifted a hand to his helmet, ready to push the button that would reconnect him to everyone else's lines. His hand was shaking though.

Why should he call them? They were just fine without him, weren't they? Robin grit his teeth and ripped his helmet off of his head, tossing it to the side. It clanked loudly against one of the table legs.

If they wanted to find him, they'd just have to come looking themselves. He ran a hand through his hair and made a small choked noise.

Why was he so hung up over Fletcher joining the team? Why did he care so much about him being Clay's brother? He knew that just because Clay had an actual brother now that it didn't mean that he wasn't needed. Yet knowing that didn't take the sting out of watching them train together, talk together, watching Clay protect Fletch. It didn't make it not hurt. Robin pulled a chair out from the table and dropped into it, holding his head in his hands.

It didn't make it hurt any less. It didn't stop thoughts of 'he doesn't want you anymore' from running through his head. It didn't make him feel any less like a used up and unwanted weapon. Tears made puddles in the dust covering the ground, but Robin didn't care. Nothing would make any of this hurt go away. A sob broke through his throat.

"Why are you crying in our dining room, boy?"

Robin's head shot up, hand moving to wipe his eyes of tears. In front of him were four forms, each one shining a near translucent blue color. These were the ghosts of the Wizard's Council that they had been looking for. Robin opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off. One of the wizards held up his hand.

"Wait. We can figure it out ourselves, Robin Underwood."

"How did you-"

"We've been listening to everything your group has been doing since you've walked in." Another wizard replied. He twirled his staff absently in his hands, looking almost bored with the conversation. "I feel it worth mentioning that your so called brother figure worried about your whereabouts for about 5 seconds before returning to his other tasks."

Robin felt his throat tighten. Before he had a chance to reply, the first wizard spoke again.

"You feel jealous of Fletcher Bowman. You wish that you were the one who was blood related to Clay Moorington. It's a dangerous sort of jealousy, you should know."

"I-I'm not jealous!" Robin stood up, hand moving to the hilt of his blade. Tears had started to prickle in the corners of his vision again. "I'm not! I just… I just want Clay to notice how much everything he's doing affects me."

A sort of chuckle passed through the wizards. Robin looked down at the ground.

"Where have we heard this one before?" One of the said, leaning against his staff, "A talented child outshone by their sibling who festers with barely concealed envy?"

Another wizard replied, "Yes, you're right. I do think we've heard this one before."

Robin glared at the four, only to be met with more light chuckling. He clenched his fists.

"As soon as you're all done making fun of me-"

"Oh, we're not making fun of you." One of them replied, cutting Robin off, "We're just thinking about how funny it is that you and your mother have the same flaws."

Robin felt his heart skip a beat.

"My mom? What do you know about my mom?"

"Ah, now we have his attention."

The wizards all took a step forward, and one of them reached out and cupped Robin's head in their hand. It was cold, like ice. Robin shivered.

"Dove, such a talented young girl. She could pilot a plane like nobody else. So special, really." The wizard paused, releasing Robin's head, "Before her sister became the best prophet the world has ever seen. Such a tragedy, to see Dove like the moon become outshone by a sun."

"Good thing that your aunt died before Dove's jealousy grew any worse than it already was."

Robin inched a couple of steps back and swallowed down a thick lump in his throat. He backed up into something as cold as ice, and whipped around to face two more ghosts. This was bad. He needed to-

"You're just like your mother, boy. But we can change that. We can make sure that you won't be outshone."

A collective of hands reached out towards Robin. He tried to scream, but no noise came out of his mouth. Everything was so cold, it was like his body had stopped working.

" _Let us help you._ "


	2. Only Compete with Yourself at Your Best

"I can't believe we didn't find anything!"

Fletcher kicked a random rock as he walked alongside the other knights. It rolled off into the underbrush. Clay shook his head and pulled his robes closer around himself.

"Maybe that's for the better," He said, half mumbling, "We don't know how those ghosts would react to us. Merlock did say that most of them had turned evil later on in life."

A snort came from Fletch, and he rolled his eyes. With one hand, he pulled his bow off of his back and pulled the string, aiming at nothing in particular. It glowed a sort of magical blue color, and a magic arrow formed in between his fingers. Hardly paying attention, he let the arrow fly. It pierced a leaf roughly 10 meters away.

"We could've taken em." He said after showing off. Aaron, from the front, spun on his heel to face Fletcher.

"Or we could've been way over our heads." He argued, "Within the first five minutes we lost Robin, we're lucky we found him again before anything happened."

Fletcher turned to face Robin, and frowned. Robin had been almost eerily quiet since they had found him, standing alone in a large banquet hall. But at the mention of his name, Robin smiled.

"Yeah, that place was creepy!"

"Creepy is an understatement," Aaron replied with a huff. He spun back around as their vehicles came into view. "Place felt like we were always being watched."

A collective murmur of agreement passed through the group as they climbed into their respective vehicles. As Fletch settled into his motorbike's seat, his system started to reconnect to the Fortrex. The signal had been cut earlier when they had grown close to the castle. It looked like Ava had finally found a way around whatever was cutting them off. He revved his bike to life, and suddenly Ava's voice cut through to him from his ear piece.

"Thank god I got through to you," She started, Fletch could hear the distant sound of rapid typing from her end, "I thought you guys had run into some cyberbyters or something."

"Nah," Aaron replied. Fletch watched as his hoverbike lifted up off the ground, "We got lucky. Looks like whatever was keeping you from getting through to us kept em away."

"Well, that's good to hear."

Across from Clay's mech, the Black Knight mech sparked to life. It moved its arms as if it were stretching, and then Robin joined in on the conversation.

"Have you had any problems? I mean, other than having trouble finding the next power from Merlock."

Ava snorted. "Fuck off. And no, I haven't. It's weird to not see anything from Monstrox for as long as we have. Usually he's after us like a cat on a mouse." She paused, "Did you guys find anything in the castle on how to dispel the virus that turned the vampires into cyberbyters?"

"No," Macy chimed in from Hotspur, "The place was abandoned. Nothing but dust and spiders."

"Creepy."

"I know."

The conversation dulled for a moment as the collective of knights made their way back to where the Fortrex was parked, far in the distance. Jestro broke the silence.

"Hey, uh, Robin?" He started from where he was sitting in Axl's siege tower, "Are you alright? You've- You've been acting a little weird since we entered that place."

Robin's mech stumbled at the question, but recovered so quickly that Fletcher could hardly tell that it had stumbled in the first place. There was a second where he didn't reply, before, "Yeah. I was just kinda overwhelmed with the whole thing, yknow?"

Jestro hummed in response, but Fletcher could tell that he still wasn't convinced. Actually, now that he thought about it, Robin had been acting weird. He was always training, or making weapons. Fletch wasn't sure when he last saw Robin sleep. He leaned forwards on his bike, and sped up ahead of the rest of the group.

A couple more minutes of driving, and the group pulled up to the Fortrex. The banners on the tops of the building lit up, turning from the kingdoms ensignia to Clay's iconic eagle, and the bridge slowly lowered to allow the incoming vehicles into the Fortrex.

Fletch slowed his motorbike to a stop, then parked it. With one smooth motion, he pulled off his helmet and set it on the seat of his bike. Something in the back of the bridge clattered.

At once, the knights went from "get off your bikes/siege towers/mechs" mode to "Oh god there's something in our house" mode. Fletcher pulled his bow off of his back and aimed it threateningly, only to put it back where it belonged with an annoyed sigh as he saw what was making all the noise.

A green haired girl, every inch of her covered in half dried mud, was digging through the scrap metal pile. Aaron, from where he was getting off of his bike, groaned.

"Allie," He started, "What are you doing here? _How_ are you here?"

The girl's head popped up from where she was digging. She sneezed once, and proceeded to wipe her nose with her muddy hands, caking more mud onto her face. She grinned.

"Implyin' that I ever left." She said, standing up all the way, "Lemme tell ya, th' inner workins of this here rollin castle 'r'some of the comfiest darn walls to sleep in. I jus' came out cuz all yer darn dishes 'r'dirty n'I fi'gured I could jus', yknow, use some of this here nonsense as a plate. I git hungry too, despite what ya'll might be thinkin."

Aaron snorted, but didn't say anything, and Allie continued her search for something to use as a plate. Fletch hoped nobody remembered that it had been his turn to do the dishes. He didn't feel like getting a lecture from Clay. Again.

From the scrap pile, Allie gave a triumphant shout and held up a small, semi-flattened piece of steel.

"Lookie here, I got myself a nice new piece o' silverware-" She stopped, eyes locking on Robin, who was climbing down from his mech. The piece of steel clattered to the floor.

"Who in the hell is that?" She asked, taking half a step backwards. Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, me?"

She nodded so fast, twigs that had been lodged in her hair flew out. Macy leaned up against Hotspur and frowned.

"That's just Robin." She said, "You've met him before."

Allie shook her head and took another step back. She shot a fearful glance at Macy.

"Nah, I don't know what in tarnation that is, but it ain't Robin." She dropped onto all fours and darted out of the room, leaving her metal scrap behind. All eyes were now on Robin. The mechanic gave a nervous laugh.

"Wh-what was that about?"

Clay frowned and walked over to Robin, arms crossed. "I dunno," He said, "But that's the most scared I've ever seen her. Are you sure nothing happened back in the castle?"

Robin's face twitched once, like he was debating on saying something, but he settled on a frown that mimicked Clay's. For the first time since leaving the castle, Fletcher could feel some sort of weird magical energy. It was vaguely like the vibe that Robin gave off when he was having a vision, but strangely more sinister. Just as quick as he noticed it though, the feeling seemed to disappear. From the way that Clay's eyes narrowed, it looked like he had felt it too.

"Of course I'm sure!" Robin replied, "I'd tell you if anything happened!"

"Right." Clay said, turning around and walking over to help Jestro down from where he was having trouble getting off of the Siege Tower. "Well, let me know if anything comes up."  
Robin nodded, but Fletcher got the feeling like something else was going on. Something that Robin either wouldn't tell them, or couldn't.

(Title is from Settle for Less by Red Vox. Please give it a listen if you can!)


	3. Why Can't I Run Fast in My Dreams?

Ava leaned back in her chair, running both hands through her hair. Things had been moving so slowly lately. She had thought that having Merlock always looking over her shoulder was a nuisance, but now that he was gone, she felt like she couldn't get anything done. Even programming a system to find the powers he had left for them took way longer than it should. She stared at the screen and watched as numbers slid past the screen. Maybe she needed some help with this…

She could ask Robin, but he was spending almost all of his time either in his room or training alone. Clay was an option, but the poor guy knew nothing about what she was doing. If she asked him to help he'd probably make things ten times worse. Aaron was out on a "mission" again, whatever that meant. And Axl and Macy were working in the kitchen, making dinner. That left Fletcher. She frowned. Where was Fletch anyway?

Something hit the back of her chair, rocking her forward a little bit. Ah, there he was. Speak of the devil, or in this case, think of the devil. Ava turned in her chair to shoot a glare at Fletcher.

"You're lucky I need your help with this." She said, turning back around, "Get over here and stop shooting stuff at me."

Another shot hit the back of her chair. Ava contemplated killing him, but then decided against it.

" _Fletcher._ "

"Alright alright!" She heard him jump out of where he was sitting and cross the floor, "No need to use my full name."

"I can use your full name when you're being a dick if I want." Ava responded, looking at him from the corner of her vision. He had his bangs pulled back away from his face with small eagle shaped hair clips.

Fletch leaned up against the console with one arm, using the other to mess with the hem of his shirt. "So what does the great great amazing Ava need help with?"

For a second time, Ava contemplated killing him.

"Haha. Very funny." She said in place of murder, "I need you to use your magic and see if you can find any errors in the programming I have set up. I'd usually have Merlock do it but, yknow. He's gone."

"Right."

There was a brief silence where the two just thought about their shared loss, and then Fletch shook his head. Probably to get rid of any sad thoughts. After all, Merlock had reunited him with Clay just before being torn apart. Ava twirled a lock of her hair around one finger and let out a sad sigh.

"So," Fletch finally said, "How does this work?"

Ava looked up at him, and then at the screen which was still flashing numbers in patterns.

"Merlock said he could feel when something was slightly out of whack. Like it was something buzzing in his ear."

"And I hear the 'buzzing' how, exactly?"

Ava gestured to the console with one hand, rolling her eyes at Fletch's sarcasm.

"Connect your magic to the Fortrex, Fletch. Then I'll run a quick scan of the program.. Just let me know if anything feels weird and that'll give me a vague idea of where I need to work on things."

Fletch nodded, and set both arms on the console. Within seconds, the Fortrex's systems shuddered from the new magical input. Ava ran the program scan and watched the screen.

Every time Fletch said "here" she hit a button, and soon a long list of mistakes started to fill another screen. Ava cringed as she watched the list grow longer and longer. Good god, how did she allow herself to make that many mistakes? Fletch twitched from where he was standing.

"Ok, what do I call a 'feeling of someone pouring itching power onto my clothes'?"

Ava instantly shoved Fletch away from the console, severing his connection with the Fortrex. Merlock had only talked about that feeling once, and that was when somebody had been hacking into her signal. She, and the rest of the team, couldn't afford her systems being tampered with right now. No matter how flawed they were. She instantly sent her tracing program into effect, only to watch in slight horror as an error message popped up.

Whoever was messing with her programming had known exactly what her tracing program was set up like, and had taken it down first. The only person who knew that both from personal experience and from helping her work on it was-

Robin entered the room.

"Hey Ava," He said, smiling, "How's it going in here?"

Ava was suddenly reminded of how Allie had acted like Robin was a bomb about to go off a few days ago. A sick feeling began to form in her stomach.

"Hey Robin," Fletch said, sitting up from where he had landed on the floor, "You just missed Ava _throwing me to the ground_ for no reason! So there's that!"

Robin laughed and walked over to help Fletch up, Ava drew back from him slightly, and thanked god that he didn't notice.

"Ava," she jumped slightly when Robin called her name, "What're ya throwing Fletch for? Anything wrong?"

She paused, and glanced at the screen. "No. The program was done being run and I just didn't know how to get Fletch out of the system."

Robin's smile faltered for a millisecond, then returned. Ava held her breath, hoping that the lie would pass, and then silently let all the air in her lungs rush out when he shrugged. Looks like that lie would work, even if for a little bit. Fletch rubbed the back of his head with a grumble.

"Sure it wasn't payback for shooting stuff at your chair?" He asked, annoyance in his voice.

"You could call it that, too." Ava said absently, "Just get out of here before I decide to get 'complete payback'."

With a roll of the eyes and a half-assed wave, Fletch turned to leave towards the kitchens as Robin turned to leave towards the holodeck. Ava watched Robin with a frown.

Why would he disable her tracing software? And was he hacking into her system himself, or was he helping someone from outside get in? She grumbled to herself and turned back to her work. Looked like she'd have to be extra careful from now on. That, and keep an eye on Robin.

((Title take from Jon Bellion's amazing song Maybe IDK. This fic is actually being built into a playlist ;0))


	4. Little Kid with a Big Death Wish

"So when you go on the offense, you should try and focus all your power into your hands for quick access. It's easier to use- are you paying attention?"

Clay shot a glare at his brother who was absolutely not paying attention to the magic lesson. Fletch was instead making small shapes in midair with small bursts of magic.

"Yeah yeah," He said, looking over his shoulder at Clay, "I'm sorta paying attention. Magic and all that."

Clay sighed. It had been a week since they had seen any activity from Monstrox and Ruina, and everyone was getting restless. It didn't help that Allie was doing everything in her power to make Robin's life a living hell, or that Aaron kept going out every night on these 'secret missions'. Clay pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. All of this would probably be tolerable if Fletch could learn some more about his powers during the break, but no. Apparently his brother was too busy being immature. He let his arm form into a long single blade, and rushed at Fletch.

If normal lessons weren't working, then maybe he'd have to turn to learning by experience.

Fletch was blown backwards by the sudden attack, but he recovered quickly, taking his bow off of his back and using it to deflect Clay's advances. His bow bent threateningly under the weight of Clay's blade and body, any more hard hitting attacks like that and it would break. He turned and ran in the opposite direction, thanking god that he was faster than his brother. Clay reared back as Fletch pulled his bowstring. Clay ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack, and then the door to the holodeck opened.

The magic arrow flew through the air, only to be caught by the person standing in the doorway. It snapped in half, the magic it was made of shattering like glass before disappearing.

Robin shook his hand and looked at Clay, who was staring like he had grown a second head.

"Sorry," He said, "Didn't know anybody was in here. I'll head out and let you two train."

And just like that, Robin was gone.

First things first, how did he catch that? That arrow was magic, it shouldn't have been able to be caught in the first place. Secondly, how did Robin even shatter it? Again, it shouldn't have been able to have been caught in the first place. Clay felt like his head was too crammed with confusion.

"What was that?"

Clay turned to look at Fletch, who looked almost, if not more confused than he was. He opened, then closed his mouth as he thought for words to say.

"It… it's probably nothing." He decided on saying, "Just luck on his part. I wouldn't worry about it."  
"Wouldn't worry about it?" Fletch was unconvinced, "Clay, he walked in here, did something that logically shouldn't be possible, and then left like it was no big deal!"

Clay ran a hand through his hair with a huff. "I don't know, ok? But until we figure it out, we should just leave it alone."

Fletch grumbled to himself, but didn't press the matter any further. Clay was thankful for that. He wasn't sure how to answer any more questions. Especially any more about what was wrong with Robin.

((You know the drill. Title is from Baby Boy by Mother Mother))


	5. Tell Me I'm the Chosen One

Aaron rode on his hovershield, helmet visor flipped down to shield his eyes from the fast moving wind. That, and any bugs that decided to fly into his face while he flew past. In the distance, the Fortrex grew larger and larger as he grew closer and closer. He leaned back on his shield, slowing it, before hopping off.

So far so good. Everyone had been too busy lately to ask where he went every few nights, but with the slow in activity from Montrox, he knew he could only continue to visit his new friend for so long. He smiled to himself as he thought about them.

They were like Romeo and Juliet, but with less death and more vampires. The way that they had had their hair pulled back into a long braid tonight was super good looking too. Aaron slung his shield over his back and hummed to himself.

"Ya have fun on yer date?"

Aaron jumped about a foot in the air, then looked up at where the voice was coming from. Allie sat on top of the Fortrex, watching Aaron from above. She chewed on a toothpick thoughtfully as she studied his every move.

"Date?" He asked, half laughing, "Who said I was going on dates? I'm just going on missions."

Allie snorted at him and pulled the toothpick out of her mouth, "No you ain't. Th'only time ya come back to th'Fortrex lookin like a sun wearin sunglasses is when ya come back from yer dates w'Axl. But y've bin comin back lookin like that w'out Axl. They're dates. I ain't no fool."

Aaron huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Am I that easy to read, or are you just super good at reading people?"

"Like I'd tell ya that!"

And then she ducked behind the balcony at the top of the Fortrex, hiding herself from Aaron's sight. He half snorted, then opened up the bridge of the Fortrex by punching the button with one hand. He would never understand her. And honestly, he didn't really want to.

As the bridge slowly opened, Aaron found himself staring at Robin who was, for lack of better terms, staring creepily into space. His eyes were wide and unfocused, and his mouth was half open. It almost looked like he was talking to himself.  
Aaron waved a hand in front of his face, then frowned.

"You ok dude?" He asked.

At once Robin snapped back to reality with a shake of his head.

"What? I mean. Yeah, yeah I'm fine." he turned, almost tripping on his pant legs, "No worries. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Aaron put a hand on Robin's shoulder, holding the younger knight in place, "I know people have been saying it a lot, but you've been acting really weird lately. If you need to talk, I'm here."

Robin wrenched his shoulder free and made his way towards the back of the bridge. "I'm fine," He snapped back at Aaron, "Really. Just leave me alone and I'll be fine."

Aaron huffed at Robin's tone, but didn't say anything. If that sort of attitude persisted, Clay would be the one to bring it up. That was a family issue and absolutely nothing that he wanted to involve himself in. So instead of pressing the issue, he simply put his shield and armor up before heading into the common room.

At the console sat Ava, and at her side was Fletch, watching her like a parrot. Every now and then Fletch would say "now". It was a… confusing ritual to say the least. Aaron walked over to lean up against the podium where Merlock 2.0 should've been.

"What're you guys doin' over there?"

Ava didn't look up from where she was typing when she replied, only waved a hand in recognition. "Fletch is using his magic to help me figure out where there are bugs in the system. Nothing too terribly exciting, I'm afraid to say."

He snorted, then looked up at the ceiling where dull thunking sounds were coming from. Allie must've gotten into the ventilation system again.

"You gonna get her out of there?" He asked. Ava shook her head.

"No. I don't really care that she does it as long as she doesn't start chewing on the wires that connect the Fortrex together again."

A pause.

"Where did she even come from anyway?" Fletch asked, "Why don't you guys just kick her out?"  
"We've tried," Aaron responded, crossing the floor to stand on the opposite side of Ava's chair, "From dropping her off where we found her, to using magic to cast a barrier around the Fortrex, none of it's worked. We're stuck with her."

A hum of agreement came from Ava, and then she gently lifted Fletch's hands away from the console.

"Alright," she said, "Get out of here. I'll let you know if I need anything else."

Fletch nodded and left with a wave. From where she sat, Ava let out a long sigh, then put her face into her hands. For the first time in a long time, Aaron got the sense that she was overwhelmed with her work. He sat on the edge of the console and crossed his arms.

"Somethin bugging you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She huffed and gestured vaguely at the screen.

"This. All of this. Something really bad is going on and I'm not even sure I can tell you what it is."

Now that had Aaron concerned. With her stressing and Robin snapping at him, as well as Allie… doing whatever it was that she did, his head was starting to hurt. Aaron felt a nap coming on.

"What do you mean you can't tell me?" He finally said after a second of thinking, "Is it a girl thing? Cuz you know I don't really care. I told you-"

"No! God, no it's not- why would you-" Ava sputtered at him before turning back to her console so that she wouldn't have to look at his stupid face, "No. It's not. Here, let me check something."

She flickered through each of the Fortrex's cameras before settling on one that was directly aimed at Robin, who was working in the bridge alone. But his movements weren't as quirky as they normally were. He moved slowly and thoughtfully. Aaron chewed at the inside of his cheek anxiously. It was almost like Robin was an entirely different person when nobody was looking.

"Ok, that's kinda creepy." Aaron settled on, "But why are you showing me this?"

Ava sighed and pulled back up the program that she had been working on with Fletch. All the numbers, Aaron couldn't exactly wrap his head around it. But he was able to notice how different these number patterns were from the ones she usually used. Certain lines were highlighted in red, and every now and then an error message would pop up.

"The program that I've been working on to find Merlock's powers that he left for us has been… Well, put simply, it's been failing horribly. At first I thought it was just my mistakes. But look," She pointed at a section of the numbers that was changing, "Someone is actually coming in through our servers and changing what I've written. I was lucky to have caught it before things got worse, but the new problem is that whoever is doing this took down my tracing system first."

She gave Aaron a look as she closed out of the program, but kept the camera on Robin up.

"There's only one person who's had personal experience with my tracing system."

At once, all the things that she had just said started to click into place in Aaron's head. He stared at Ava, and then at the screen.

"You don't think Robin is doing this, do you?"

She let out another sigh and shook her head.

"Honestly, I don't know what I think at this point." Ava said, "Part of me says that he'd never do anything like this, but the other part… Well the other part is scared. If Robin turned against us, there's a 100% chance that we'd lose against him. Lose against anything he would throw at us."

Aaron inhaled sharply. Ava was right. With all the knowledge Robin had about both the Fortrex as well as just building in general, they would be like gnats against a flyswatter. Monstrox would be nothing compared to the damage that Robin could do to them if he wanted. Aaron chewed on one of his thumbnails, eyes glued to the screen.

"Do you want me to say anything about it to the others?"

Ava shook her head, "No. If we're wrong about anything, then it could mean bad consequences for all of us. Just. Please keep an eye on him for me? Watching him all the time and trying to get this system to not shut down completely is tiring."

Aaron nodded and patted her head a couple of times before giving her a thumbs up, then leaving. He knew she said not to do anything, but there was one thing that he wanted done. He'd have to ask Axl about it later.

((Smashing Pumpkins this time! Song title is Bullet with Butterfly Wings))


	6. What You Know You Don't Know for Sure

Lunch was done, and Axl was cleaning up when Aaron came up to him. His headphones were resting down on his neck instead of on their usual place on his head. This was a serious issue, it looked like.

"Axl I need your help."  
Ah, more serious that he had thought. Aaron hardly asked for help. Axl finished what he was doing before giving Aaron his full attention.

"With what?"

"I need you to get Robin out of the Fortrex for a while."  
Axl paused, making sure he heard that right. "That's… that's it?"

Aaron nodded, "Yeah. Make him go and get groceries or something. If anyone else tells him, he won't go."

Well, yeah, that one made sense. But why was Aaron making such a big deal about shopping? And Robin specifically. Axl thought about what he needed to stack up on.

"Alright." Axl said, "Allie's been eating all the eggs again so I need more of those. And-"

Aaron held up a hand, "Ya gotta tell Robin, not me. And thanks for this, by the way. I'll explain later on. Meet me in the common room in about… I dunno, five minutes? Yeah let's go with that. See ya later."

Axl shrugged as Aaron walked away, then pulled open a small drawer where he kept his shopping lists. In a couple of seconds, the words "Eggs" was written on it. Another couple of seconds of thinking, and "Hide when brought back" was added next to "Eggs". The list was already long as it was, and these two extra things made it even longer. Axl did not want to be Robin when he had to carry all this stuff back.

He pocketed the list, and left the kitchen to make his way to the workshop. There he found Robin, busy working on something new. Axl tapped on his shoulder with one hand and pulled the list out of his pocket with the other.

"What is that?" Robin asked, frowning at the long piece of paper that had been thrust at him.

"Shopping list," Axl replied, "It's your turn to go get the groceries."

Robin's face scrunched up in annoyance as he eyed over the list. It looked like he had just licked a lemon. Axl kinda thought it was funny.

"Why is there so much stuff on here?" Robin grumbled, "Would it kill you to take some of this off?"

He pointed angrily at one thing in particular, "What the hell is a pitaya?!"

"Dragonfruit," Axl said, lifting Robin off of the ground with one hand to make him stand, "I like using its technical name. It's fun to say."

Robin rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything else. He only rolled his eyes and put the list into a small pocket on the front of his chest. As he made his way towards his mech, Axl could hear the faint sound of rubber bands snapping. He assumed Robin was doing that thing where he snapped the bands that he wore as bracelets against his wrist.

"That's a habit you need to break." Axl called up to Robin. Robin waved in response, almost as if shooing Axl away.

The top of the Black Knight closed, and then was out. Axl huffed. He needed to get the kid a tangle or something. Keep his hands busy when he wasn't working.

Axl turned to head out of the workshop, but glanced at what Robin had been working on first.

He couldn't exactly tell what it was, but it looked like the weapon that that weirdo villain from SpidersGuy had. All the arms. It was a little creepy.

Oh well, it wasn't his problem.

When Axl made his way into the common room, he found himself in the company of, well, everyone. Clay was leaning up against Merlock's old podium, Fletch next to him. Macy had her head on the podium where she sat next to Lance who was painting his nails a pink so bright that it shouldn't have been possible to see. The doors that led to the living quarters swooshed open, and in came the only person they were missing.

Aaron had Robin's helmet cradled against his hip, there the plume on the top swayed back and forth. With a dull thunk Aaron set the helmet down on the Fortrex's main console, right next to where Ava was working on pulling something up. She opened a small drawer next to her chair, and pulled out a thin wire. In half a second she had one end of the wire stuck into a hidden port on the helmet, and the other half into the console.

"Sorry for dragging you all out of your… activities, everyone." Aaron said, chewing on a thumbnail, "But since Robin is gone, we thought that now would be a good time to check this out."  
Lance looked up, hand perfectly poised directly above the bottle of polish.

"Yeah that's great," He said, "But what is 'this'?"

Ava shot a glare at Aaron, to which he only shrugged. Axl got the feeling that this was a little more important than he had thought.

"We're getting to that," Aaron replied, "You all have noticed how weird robin's been acting lately though, right?"

A murmur passed through the group, and Ava finished pulling up what she wanted to show them.

"Right. Well, apparently Robin's been hacking into Ava's stuff, changing the coding, whole bunch of complicated stuff."  
"He's stopping me from finding what Merlock left us," Ava huffed, annoyed with Aaron's terrible explanation, "And I've been wondering why. Then I remembered that he only started doing this stuff _after_ you guys got back from the castle. So…"

She paused, letting everyone else fill in the gaps.

"So something must've happened there that he isn't telling us." Clay finished, "What I want to know is why he didn't tell me about it. He knows that anytime he needs someone, I'm there for him. I'm his brother, after all."

Fletch nodded, "And so am I, by default."

On the screen, a video started playing. Ava grumbled to herself and started to skip through it.

"Exactly." She said, "So I'm just gonna go through the footage from his helmet camera and see what happened."

((Title from Aspiring Fires by Mother Mother. I broke my "One song per band/writer" rule like a chump))


	7. He Looked in the Wrong Place

Lance waved his hands back and forth rapidly to try and speed up the process of his nails drying and frowned at the screen where Ava was speeding through footage so fast it made his head hurt. All this nonsense about Robin… Well, it wasn't like he wasn't worried either. Robin was a good kid, it'd suck if anything bad had happened to him. Lance sighed and stopped waving his hands, instead deciding to blow on his nails. Less of an annoyance.

Ava stopped skipping through the video and spun her chair around to face the ground. She looked tired, like she hadn't slept in a while. Looked like she had been picking up Clay's bad sleeping habits.

"OK, I think this is it," She said with a small sigh, "I don't really know what to expect so, yknow. Just watch out, I guess." With that, she spun her chair back around and turned the volume up.

((There's a line break here))

Robin was cold. So cold, in fact, that he felt like he shouldn't be alive. He struggled slightly against the hands that pinned his wrists to the ground, but gave up. It was just, too cold.

A bright green light flashed in front of his eyes, and he squinted at it.

A woman, or technically, the ghost of a woman, stood over him. Her was short and curly, and her form was bright green in contrast to the blue of the others. She smiled at him, her teeth were sharp and pointed.

"Look at what we have here," She crooned, "Another child who needs my help."

Robin struggled once more, only to be met with a soft laugh. The woman reached down and held his face. Her hands weren't cold like the other ghosts. She was warm. Robin stopped and looked at her.

"I don't need your help," He said, "I don't even know who you are! I just want to-"  
She held up a hand, cutting him off.

"Don't know who I am?" She asked, incredulous, "Don't know who you're own auntie is? Why, I'm hurt Robin! Simply hurt!"

Robin opened his mouth to protest. His aunt was dead, but not like this. She hadn't been evil. He knew she hadn't. Yet the woman laughed loudly before he could say anything. She pulled her hands away from him, and the cold returned.

"Nah, I'm just kidding. Though this _is_ Swan's body, I'm not her." She grinned, all warmth from her gaze was gone, instead replaced with a hot fire.

"You can call me Ms. Envy, and I'm afraid I'm going to take your body now."

"What're you-"

She dissolved, almost becoming a mist, and then seeped into Robin. A scream ripped through his throat, and the ghosts let go of him.

He twitched once, and was still. His eyes flashed green.

"Did it work?" Asked one of the wizards, "I'd hate to have gone through all of that trouble only for his will to be too strong for her to-"  
"Oh shut up, it worked."

Robin sat up and rubbed his wrists where the ghosts had held him. But there was something off about the way he moved. It was jerky and uncertain. The wizard who had spoken flinched back from him, and held their staff close to their chest.

"So," said another, leaning forward, "How is it?"

"Fine," Robin replied, moving to stand, "Weird, but fine. Kid had some serious issues. His head is like a haystack full of needles."

A chuckle passed through the gathered wizards.

"So what do you plan to do?"

Robin shrugged, "Cause trouble, probably. Help the kid out a bit. It's what I do-"

((I hate this website. Another line break))

Ava stopped the video.

Silence hung in the common room. Aaron couldn't even come up with anything encouraging to say. Lance could practically feel the guilt coming off of everyone in waves.

It was awkward, and honestly more than a little upsetting.

Clay was the first to break the silence.

"I didn't know… That he felt that way about everything."

"None of us did," Ava responded slowly, "It's not just you."

"Yeah, but I should've…" Clay paused as he looked for the right thing to say, "I should've talked to him. Ask how he was doing."

Lance sighed from where he was sitting, and thought for a second. He had never really had any big problems with _his_ sibling. To be fair though, he hardly ever saw her. What could he say to help? Just don't see your sibling for months on end and your relationship should be fine? No, that was stupid. Besides, this was a sibling issue that included ghosts and creepy possession, not whether or not someone had worn someone else's socks despite being told not to. He looked up as Fletch began to talk.

"Could we just… use magic to get her out of him?"

There was a loud clunk in the ceiling above them, and then a panel of the vents dropped down onto the ground. Lance did as any self respecting knight did and screamed.

Shortly after the panel fell, down dropped Allie. Her hair was grey with dust that was stuck in it, and a few cobwebs clung to her clothes here and there. Lance tried not to vomit as he noticed a large spider sitting on her forehead.

"Hell no y'can't jus' use magic!" She snapped at Fletch, causing him to snap out of his confused state, "You'd hurt the poor feller!"

"H-How do you know this?" Jestro asked.

"Shut up n trust me," She said back at him, "Ah jus' do. Th'best thing ya'll c'n do is jus' help him break through on his own."  
Lance knew that she said for them to trust her, but he was having a really hard time doing that. For example, she had taken the spider off of her forehead as she had been talking, and had eaten it. Just… shoved it right in her mouth. But Clay seemed to be trusting her just fine.

"Alright," Clay said, "We'll try everything we can when he gets back."  
He turned to face the group and gave a determined smile.

"Let's get Robin out of this mess!"

((Title is from A Sadness Runs Through Him by the Hoosiers))


	8. I Guess I'm a bit Dramatic

Slowly, the bridge of the Fortrex opened, and the Black Knight mech walked in. The sky behind it was turning a milky orange as the sun began to set. Draping from the mechs fingers were dozens of grocery bags, and gently, it set them down. From inside the bags a couple of cans clattered together.

With a hiss, the top of the mech opened, and Robin climbed out. He sighed as he stared at all the groceries. How was he gonna carry them back into the kitchen? A noise clattered in the back of the bridge, and Robin looked up.

"You come to help?" He asked, frowning, "Cuz uh, there's a whole lot of stuff here. I've only got so many hands so… Yknow."

He played with the bracelets on his wrists and sniffled once at where the noise had come from. Whoever was over there was being annoyingly unhelpful. Either that, or he was just that unlikable.

The bridge behind him began to close.

Panic flared in his stomach for a second, and he shot a look at what he had been working on for the past few days. He'd have to use it, wouldn't he. He'd have to- the thought flickered out.

Clay stepped out from behind where he had been rearranging the weapons in the back of the workshop. He raised an eyebrow at Robin's panicked state before walking over to grab a couple of bags.

"You're a little jumpy," He commented, "Anything happen?"

 _Did_ anything happen? He couldn't really remember what he had even been panicking about a few moments ago. In fact, the harder he tried to remember, the less he seemed to know. It was like chasing a piece of paper that was fluttering in the wind. Robin decided that, no, nothing had happened.

"No," He replied after all that thinking, "Nothing happened. Just my nerves getting to me, I guess."

Clay paused and thought about that for a second.

"Hey Robin?"

"Yeah?"

"I wanted to apologize."

Robin blinked. "For what?"

His head began to hurt. That feeling of chasing the wind had returned.

"For not really taking the time to talk and be a brother to you lately. Ever since Fletch showed up, I feel like I've been seeing you less, and it sucks. I care about you, Robin."

Deep within his subconscious, Robin could feel something trying to get out. Like a memory or something. His headache was turning into a migraine. He was barely aware of how he was shaking.

"Like this," Clay set the bags he was holding down and gestured at what Robin had been working on, "You've been working on this for a while now, and I haven't even asked what it is. And that sucks. I want to be able to talk to you about what you do. And, maybe you could show me what it is when we're done putting stuff away."

"That's…"  
What _had_ he been working on for the past few days? He couldn't remember. No, it wasn't that he couldn't remember, he didn't _know._ He had no idea what he had been making. It felt like his head was being cut open.

When had he started that? What _was_ it? Why didn't he know?

Something inside of him snapped.

"That's not true."

Clay blinked at Robin, surprised.

"What-"

"None of that is true." Robin said, his eyes changing from their normal blue to a bright, glowing green, "You don't care. You've never cared. You only wanted me to fill a void in your heart and as soon as you had a proper replacement, you tossed me out."

There was a sad, hurt look in Clay's eyes now, but Robin didn't care. It felt like his body was on autopilot.

"Don't come up to me and talk about wanting to know what I'm doing when you still think that I'm too young to know what _you_ do. But Fletch isn't? But Ava isn't?" He laughed, "You know, for a second there, I almost forgot why I was even building this in the first place."  
He walked over to where Clay was standing, next to the strange thing that he had been building. Gently, he shoved his hands into two small holes in the back of the thing and smiled wide as it flickered to life. Wires with needles attached to them shot into his hands, fully connecting him to his creation. Within the machine, he flexed his fingers and two of the machine's four arms spun to life.

Clay watched, torn between taking Robin out of the thing and calling for help.

Then, faster than Clay could see, one of the arms shot forward and picked him up, then threw him hard across workshop. Robin laughed, but his voice was mangled. It sounded like a combination of several people's voices.

"You said you wanted to see what it did!" He said happily, "So I'm showing you! And I'm done shoving all my thoughts to the side, I'm dealing with them directly now! Directly!"

With the last word, and arm stretched out and grabbed Clay from where he had landed, then threw him once more onto the ground.

Something hit Robin in the back. Within an instant, another arm whipped around and held the culprit high above the ground in front of him. He narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, Fletch." The arm brought Fletcher closer to Robin's face, and Robin scowled. His unnatural glowing green eyes were so bright that Fletch had to squint.

"Y'know, I thought you were a cool guy." Fletch was tossed up once, then caught, "Then you come here and steal my brother from me. Aren't you destined to turn evil too? What's your deal, you decide to act on your birthright early?"

Fletch twisted in the arm's grasp so that he was facing Clay, and then spun back around to look at Robin. He took a deep breath, and then started to try and shove the arm off of where it was holding his legs. Robin laughed loudly.

"Oh, you think it'll be that easy?"  
The arm tightened, and a sickening crack echoed through the workshop. Fletch screamed.

Robin tossed Fletch aside and snorted in contempt as Clay almost instantly ran over to catch his brother. Clay glared at Robin.

"Alright Allie," Robin heard Clay mumble, "I tried your way, what now?"

"I have an idea," Robin said, all four arms of the machine moving to grab Clay's limbs, "This will be the part where I kill you!"

An arrow hit one of the arms, and it shuddered, before releasing it's hold on Clay's right leg. Robin's head whipped around, and a growl began to form in the back of the throat.

"Why am I always being interrupted!?"

The rest of the knights were entering the workshop, and Aaron had his crossbow in hand. His eyes were narrowed in a sort of sad regret.

"I dunno, buddy," Aaron said, making a motion with one hand to tell Macy and Lance to help Fletch, "But lemme tell ya, it's getting pretty annoying to have to deal with one of our team members going evil every few weeks."

Suddenly, Robin found himself surrounded. Which was, less than ideal.

On one hand, he could drop Clay and deal with the others, but that left his one goal gone. On the other hand, he could just kill his brother here and now, but where was the fun in that?

Wait, fun? Why was he thinking that this was fun? This was a serious thing, and he didn't even want to hurt Clay. What was he doing?

And then, for the first time, while he stood there surrounded, Robin remembered what had happened back at the castle. All those thoughts that had come and gone were his, all the stuff in his head now wasn't his. It was Envy's.

Clay dropped to the ground, and Robin ripped his hands out of the machine. The wires that had been connected to his hands were pulled out, and now his hands were dripping with his own blood. He was shaking.

He never meant to hurt anyone. How could he have let this happen? How could he have-

Robin's thoughts all cut off.

Envy ran one of Robin's hands through his hair, spreading blood all over his forehead. She laughed nervously.

"He almost got me there," She said, no longer using Robin's voice, but her own, "Really, I should've kept better hold of him in the first place, but that's in the past."

She frowned at the gathered knights.

"What I want to know is whether or not you know who I am."

Macy gripped her mace tightly, "You're Envy, we saw who you really are from the footage from the castle."

"Oh, right. The helmet." Envy crossed her arms, more blood getting on Robin's body with every move she made, "Should've taken care about that. Again though, that's in the past. Where were we again?"

A hand wrapped around her mouth from behind, and for a second, she was confused. All the knights were right here, which one was she forgetting? And then she remembered that Robin had detached himself from the machine. Clay.

"This is the part," Clay said slowly, "Where you give my brother back his body, or I blast your sorry excuse for a spirit all the way back to that castle."

Envy laughed nervously, "H-hey, can't we work something out here?"  
"So you're not going to give Robin back his body?"

"I never _specifically_ said-"

"Goodbye."

Envy and Robin's collective vision went dark, and suddenly, Robin felt alone with his thoughts again.

((Title is from Appetite of a People Please by Ghost!))


	9. They Have Always Listened to Me

Fletch sat in his bed and watched as Jestro worked. A completely fractured leg was, for a lack of better phrases, less than ideal. But Jestro could heal it with enough time, as long as Clay was quite literally right next to him. Fletch would've found it funny if it weren't for him needing his legs healed. He could giggle about it later though.

Slowly, Jestro began to slump over, his eyes closing. Clay sighed and held his boyfriend before lifting him up.

"He'll be back tomorrow," Clay said, "Needs to stop overworking himself… Could've taken a break earlier…"

And with more mumbling to himself, Clay was gone. Fletch leaned forward and ran his hands along the wrap covering his half healed leg. He'd have to use crutches, but other than that, he was fine. Fletch flopped back against his bed with a huff.

Something moved in the corner of his doorway, and Fletch sat up.

"You can come in, you know." He said, propping himself up against his dozens of pillows, "It's not like I'm going anywhere."

So in walked Robin, hands fidgeting endlessly with the edge of his shirt. His eyes were still slightly green, a side effect, probably. A feeling of awkwardness slowly settled over the room.

"I… I'm sorry." Robin started, decidedly looking everywhere but at Fletch, "For what I did. To your leg."

"No it's- it's fine." Fletch instantly said back, scooting forwards, "You didn't mean to do any of that so, it's fine."

There was a horrible, awkward silence. Robin shifted from leg to leg nervously, and Fletch kinda wished that his leg was fine so that he could do the same.

"So… I guess I'll go now-"  
"Wait."

Robin blinked at Fletch as he scooted even closer to the edge of his bed, "Wait. You said sorry to me, so I think I should say sorry to you."

Robin looked like he wanted to interrupt, but Fletch continued before he could say anything.

"After we found out that Clay was my brother, and I joined you, I kinda started becoming an asshole. At first I was scared, and then I started to cover up my fears with telling myself that I was the most important person on the team and that's, yknow, an asshole move." He ran a hand through his hair, "I was so caught up in myself that I didn't even notice you, or anyone else. I need to start taking things seriously, because being scared isn't any reason to be a jerk. So, I'm sorry."

Robin frowned, and took a seat at the edge of Fletch's bed. He sat there for a minute.

"No, I think you're fine," He finally said, "Everything happened to you at once and… honestly I wouldn't broken in a second. It was me that was being a jerk. I was blaming all my insecurities on you and look where it got me. Possessed by a ghost that possessed pretty much everyone in my family before me."

Fletch shook his head and punched Robin gently in the arm. "I'm not gonna be able to get you to accept my apology, am I?"  
Robin laughed softly, "Nope. And you're not gonna accept mine?"

The awkwardness that had been in the room slowly dissipated as they laughed together. Fletch fell back against his bed, and gave a happy sigh. Thank god that they were settling this now instead of letting the awkwardness carry on far into the future. With a huff he pulled himself back upright.

"Listen man, here's all I'm gonna say about this," he said, putting a hand on Robin's back, "From now on, we're brothers. No more shoving our feelings aside, we'll just talk it out."  
Robin nodded, and then grinned.

"Even if I go and eat all your snacks while you can't move."

Fletch's face suddenly became very serious.

"You. Wouldn't. Dare."

And just like that, Robin was up and running. Fletch struggled out of his bed, only to topple over with one step.

"Robin!" He screamed, "Robin if you touch my cosmic brownies I'm going to kill you!"

"Can't kill me if I'm already gone!" Robin shouted back from down the hall.

Fletch grumbled to himself from where he lay, face down on the floor. Tomorrow, when Jestro finished healing his leg, he'd get his revenge. But for now, he was just happy that Robin was back to himself.

((Title is from Boys will be Bugs by Cavetown. Thanks for reading!))


End file.
